The Dysfunctional Immigration System breaking families apart.

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La nicaragüense Maricela Soza pidió el miércoles al presidente Barack Obama que ayude a resolver la situación de miles inmigrantes cuyos hijos estadounidenses quedan solos cuando sus padres son deportados por estar en condición migratoria irregular, como le ocurrió el miércoles a ella.

Los hijos de Maricela realizaron una huelga de hambre para intentar frenar la deportación.

Al llegar a la capital nicaragüense, Soza formuló un pedido al presidente de Estados Unidos de que "revise mi caso para que pueda regresar a terminar de criar a mis hijos".

"No solo pido que (Obama) me ayude en mi caso sino en el de miles de madres que deben estar en la misma situación", agregó.

El abogado Alfonso Oviedo Reyes explicó en Miami que la junta de apelaciones de inmigración rechazó una moción para reabrir el caso y se negó así a detener la deportación de Soza, de 32 años.

"Vamos a pedir la reapertura del caso ante la Corte Federal de Apelaciones de Atlanta porque el esposo está aquí todavía, y el caso tiene vigencia", expresó el letrado, y explicó que mientras el caso no se resuelva en ese tribunal, la mujer deberá permanecer en Nicaragua. Podría llevar meses antes de que la corte tome una resolución, indicó.

Soza fue detenida en diciembre en su casa por permanecer en Estados Unidos sin documentos.

Horas después arribó al aeropuerto nicaragüense Augusto C. Sandino junto con un grupo de compatriotas suyos deportados, informó el Canal 2 de la televisión local. La familia de la mujer se encuentra en Ciudad Darío, a 67 kilómetros al norte de Managua.

"Yo me fui del país en busca del sueño americano. Vivíamos bien, honestamente, no somos delincuentes. Pagábamos impuestos, contribuíamos con nuestro trabajo y queremos a Estados Unidos", manifestó.

Su esposo y padre de los niños, Ronald Soza, de 42 años y también nicaragüense, permanecía en contacto telefónico con sus hijos, pero escondido en el sur de la Florida por temor a ser arrestado por las autoridades de inmigración, ya que también está indocumentado en Estados Unidos.

"Mis niños nacieron en los Estados Unidos, son americanos y humanamente no pueden ser privados de sus padres", expresó la mujer deportada.

Cecia y Ronald Soza, de 12 y 9 años respectivamente, comenzaron el lunes con el ayuno y lo continuaron hasta la tarde del miércoles, cuando Oviedo les informó que su madre había sido deportada.

Estuvieron acompañados por su tío Fausto Soza, que es ciudadano estadounidense, y su guardiana legal, Nora Sándigo.

The consecuences of the Anti Immigrant sentiment.

Two Chilean students were killed and three others wounded when a man broke into a reunion in Pensacola (USA) and shot with a rifle attendees. Los jóvenes participaban en un programa de trabajo e intercambio estudiantil. Young people participating in a work program and student exchange.

The deceased are Nicolás Pablo Corp, for 22 years, and Racine Balbontín Argandoña 23. Los dos eran oriundos de Valparaíso (a 120 kilómetros de Santiago de Chile). Both were from Valparaíso (120 km from Santiago de Chile). Habían llegado a EE UU en diciembre, para una estancia de cuatro meses. Had come to the U.S. in December for a stay of four months. "Celebraban que les quedaba poco tiempo para volver a casa", explicó en declaraciones a este diario Rodrigo Balbontín, amigo de una de las víctimas. "Held that they had little time to go home," he said in remarks to this newspaper Balbontín Rodrigo, a friend of one of the victims. El cónsul chileno en Miami, Jorge Valdés, informó que uno de los heridos está en estado crítico. The Chilean consul in Miami, Jorge Valdes, reported that one of the wounded is in critical condition.

El presunto responsable es Dannie Baker, de 60 años, quien ha sido identificado por sus vecinos como "un racista", además de que había enviado correos electrónicos con amenazas a políticos demócratas, según informaron medios locales. The suspect is Dannie Baker, 60, who was identified by neighbors as a "racist", and had sent emails with threats to democratic politics, local media reported.

Un portavoz del Gobierno chileno se refirió a los hechos como "un crimen macabro" que significa "una tragedia lamentable y brutal". A Chilean government spokesman described the events as "a macabre crime" which means "an unfortunate tragedy and brutal."

Sheriff Arpaio must go.!!!!!!!!

Demand Justice- Sign the Petition

Should "America's Toughest Sheriff" get a free pass on his controversial tactics? Should he round up immigrants at traffic stops and force them to sleep in separate "Tent Cities" in the desert?

We think he should get investigated by the Department of Justice.


With over 2,700 lawsuits against him, a history of virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Latino tactics, and 40,000 felony warrants outstanding in his jurisdiction, Arpaio has fostered a climate in which real criminals roam free while hard-working immigrants live in fear. America's Voice is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to begin a federal investigation into his tactics, giving Sheriff Arpaio the attention he really deserves.



Demand an investigation from the Department of Justice:


Honorable Eric Holder
Attorney General of the United States
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530



We, the undersigned, respectfully request that you direct your office to investigate Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, for gross civil rights violations in the name of immigration enforcement.

No official is above the law, and yet Sheriff Arpaio has engaged in racial profiling and civil rights abuses for years with impunity.

The case against the publicity-hungry Sheriff is well documented and horrifying. Joe Arpaio has made a mockery of our justice system by:

Relying heavily on racial profiling and double standards: routinely stopping drivers for minor violations and only forcing "Latino-looking" drivers to produce Social Security cards.

Engaging in sidewalk “crime sweeps” in low-crime communities – detaining those who cannot prove their citizenship status on the spot, while allowing dangerous felons to roam free.

Promoting horrifying detention conditions that have been condemned by health agencies and human rights organizations.

Arpaio’s prisons have been stripped of their health standards accreditation, the Mayor of Phoenix and other law enforcement officials have denounced the Sheriff's tactics, the Governor of Arizona has pulled some of his key funding, and over 2,700 lawsuits have been filed against him. Meanwhile, crime has surged. The Sheriff's office has over 40,000 outstanding warrants for real felons that it simply hasn't had time to tackle.

Mr. Attorney General, elected officials are subject to our nation's laws. Sheriffs should be held accountable for fighting crime, not rewarded for spreading fear. We request an immediate Department of Justice investigation into Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his appalling tactics.

Sign the petition here: America's Voice.

Anti Immigrants responsible for Hate crimes? Yes or no?

Our anti-immigrant Politics, and many Anchor news dehumanizes the undocumented Immigrant as the “worst enemy" the way our military does during wartime; it lessens the burden of our atrocities on our consciences. This new racism equates "illegal immigrant" with "criminal behavior" and makes bigotry and HATE crime acceptable. For even the most bigoted amongst them like Lou Dobbs presenting false, unworthy, or knowingly tainted news, undermining the existence of journalism and correspondence credibility.

I can understand why people would have a problem with that. I can understand the arguments of people who believe there are more pressing concerns or the economy can't handle more immigrants. I don't agree, but I can understand. What I can't understand is dehumanizing, denigrating, diminished and demonizing undocumented immigrants, who are often taking one of the few opportunities to better themselves in the midst of the despair and ugliness of a world that often seems beyond broken.

Thus contrary to Federal regulations, U.S. Constitution, Civil rights statues and Basic Humanitarian rights in which the United States of America pride its itself and so vehemently upholds, stands for, and preaches around the World: It’s allowing within populist anchor news and organizations to outright violate the mentioned laws, statues, regulations, ethic, and procedural due process under the veil of unjust laws incompassed in the guise of the War on Terrorism in propaganda fashion.

I want to point out a couple of points what Lou Dobbs promoting on his segment Broken Borders and Border Security.

1.-Racism, Anti Immigrant Sentiment: Against a particular race, color, creed of people not only to those now labeled as Aliens/Illegal Immigrants of Mexican descendency, heritage and culture, but to those whom are Mexican American Citizens, Chicanos, or Hispanic Origin.

When Lou Dobbs speak of broken borders, and border security because of a terror threat from Al Qaeda, assimilates and associates two very different issues!! That of predominately Mexican migrant workers to this continent, and those of foreign Muslim Al Qaeda fighters. Thus a migrant people who come to work and live the American Dream and those foreign Immigrants with motives Terrorist.
This misleading, distorting, and twisting of the facts has expressively been sensationalized against the Undocumented worker as an Anti Immigrant sentiment.
This issues have been created a hostile, prejudice, fearful, and aggressive environment for a Hispanic race of people or those with Hispanic surnames in particular Mexican Americans, Chicanos, or just because looks kind a Mexican. See picture.











Lou Dobbs has polarized the Nation by sensationalizing the unjust laws, immigration reform, and blaming every social ill in the U.S. on the Mexican People as tough they are solely responsible.

Lou Dobbs has exploited and bashed the Mexican people for crossing the border. Which in itself is a minor offence? By, But not limited to discriminating, affiliating, associating, and profiling Mexicans, Hispanics, Latino people legal or undocumented with groups or organization of Terrorists implying that Mexicans could bring a Dirty Bomb. This is false and outrageous when the sons and daughters of Mexican descent are spilling their blood in the War WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq, and is in violation of constitutional rights. Thus creating an environment of hostility, anger, depriving freedom from fear of persecution and Liberty

Undocumented Immigrants draining social services? A Lie or a Fact?

Let the sunshine in!!!! How many times did you hear undocumented Immigrants draining the social services like Medicare, Medicaid, Medical, etc?
Well Thousands of Children migrate to the United States each year. Many of these children’s come fleeing war, violence, abuse, or natural disaster; other comes to reunite with family members already here, or to seek a better life for themselves. They undertake difficult journeys, often across International borders, and often alone. Children and woman are the most vulnerable who cross our borders, the desert, and are in need of special appropriate to their situation. Yet they faced additional hurdles upon arrival. They are in detention centers placed like prisons intended for the incarceration of criminals, many were commingled with the delinquent population, subject to handcuffing and shackling, forced to wear prisons uniforms and locked in prisons cells like you see the of Inhumane and civil right violations like Joe Arpaio demonstration, while their immigration cases proceed through the courts and they must undergo adversarial immigration proceedings, often without a help or a Lawyer or Guardian.
Well many were de facto denied to legal and social services critical to their pursuit of asylum or other forms of relief of care because they were housed in detention centers far from hospital, and care available services.
Something that Society do not understand Latinos are the trend to be the youngest population so they're going to be part of a work force that will be supporting the Medicaid programs and all these senior programs. As a proportion, they'll be paying more and more of these taxes. Their taxes are going to be far more important to our economy than their parents' taxes are. So the contrary the Anti Immigrants, Nativist, and Protectionists claiming that Undocumented Immigrant will overcrowded classrooms and emergency rooms. Overwhelmed police and fire departments. Bankrupt Social Security, Medicare and welfare programs. Skyrocketing taxes but is it fact or fear-mongering?
I will say Fear mongering; they based those arguments with estimation, fiction, calculations on fictitious numbers. My theory is based on facts and there it goes..
A review of the arrest warrant declaration is a detailed lesson in health care fraud and how it begins and occurs at every level. It also is a lesson for those in the health care business (physicians, therapists, nurses, patients, marketers, purchasers of businesses, and others) that they need to be careful or they can get caught up working at or for a facility that is committing health care fraud and those nativist, protectionists, Minuteman members, and Anti Immigrants groups stop blaming undocumented Immigrants because If you buy the shares of a business, you could also be liable for prior illegal billing and overpayments. Social services is being taken advantage of by everyone, no matter who they're affiliated with; And I can't say it's just individuals or companies who are doing it. It's subjective. The ironic thing is that these providers try to involve the undocumented Immigrant as a scapegoat and make them seem like part of the main problem.

1.- A married couple from Groton were charged Friday as fugitives from justice for a $1.3 million health care fraud scam in California. The couple with multiple counts of heath benefits fraud, grand theft, receiving stolen property, identity theft, and money laundering, all felonies.

2.- Six Miami-Dade County residents have been indicted in connection with an alleged $10 million Medicare fraud scheme operated out of Midway Medical, a Miami clinic that purported to specialize in treating HIV/AIDS patients.
The indictment alleges that the physicians ordered medically unnecessary infusions and injections, and falsified medical records to make it appear that the HIV services were necessary. The indictment also alleges that many of the infusions or injections were never actually provided. Midway Medical billed more than $10 million to the Medicare program for services that were medically unnecessary and not actually provided between September 2002 and June 2005. During that time frame, Medicare paid more than $4.8 million on those fraudulent claims submitted by Midway Medical.

3.- State auditors recovered more than $269 million in Medicaid fraud and waste between October 2007 and March 2008, officials from the state's Office of the Medicaid Inspector General told The New York Sun. He said that going forward, his auditors would look at "every sector that gets significant public funds," including hospitals. He also described a method for rooting out Medicaid billing problems known as "data mining," in which a computer identifies mistakes or cases of fraud.

4.- It was created 40 years ago to provide health care for the poorest New Yorkers, offering a lifeline to those who could not afford to have a baby or a heart attack. But in the decades since, New York State's Medicaid program has also become a $44.5 billion target for the unscrupulous and the opportunistic. It has drawn dentists like Dr. Dolly Rosen, who within 12 months somehow built the state's biggest Medicaid dental practice out of a Brooklyn storefront, where she claimed to have performed as many as 991 procedures a day in 2003. After The New York Times discovered her extraordinary billings through a computer analysis and questioned the state about them, Dr. Rosen and two associates were indicted on charges of stealing more than $1 million from the program.


5.- A Concord, N.H., mental health counselor has been convicted of defrauding Medicaid, getting reimbursed for services that he never performed.
Fifty-five-year-old Lee Bird provided therapy services to clients who were eligible for Medicaid benefits. The Attorney General's office says after he stopped seeing some clients, Bird continued billing Medicaid for therapy services. That happened between January 2004 and February 2007.

6.- The state has overpaid day care providers at least $13.7 million in recent years - including millions of dollars spent on bogus child care that was never delivered, according to the state's own records.
When regulators have tried to collect the misspent taxpayer-funded money, parents and providers have stiffed the state to the tune of $6.4 million, the Journal Sentinel has found.
A four-month Journal Sentinel investigation published last month detailed a million Wisconsin Shares child-care lack of regulatory controls within the $340 Millions subsidy program - a system prone to abuse and fraud that can go undetected. Even with lax oversight, state regulators have identified millions of dollars that should not have been paid to providers.
The state of Wisconsin shut down 20 providers suspected of fraud in the last five years who owed $1.3 million. More than $1.2 million of that amount has gone uncollected.
For instance in one eight-month period, Wiley-Jorgensen (U.S. Citizen) appeared to have overbilled the state by $103,575, regulators calculated. The state didn't believe she was actually caring for the 24 kids she claimed in her reports
And so far I had not seen any document stated that any undocumented Immigrants has been part of this problem.

7.-According to their 2008 SEC filings, the largest hospital chain in the U.S., the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) - founded by the family of former Senator and Majority Leader Bill Frist; After his Senate career, Frist became a partner with health-care investment firm, and chairman of a nonprofit (????) charitable (???) foundation focusing on Global health initiatives and Education issues- reports that in 2008 about 49% of their revenues and 59% of their hospital admissions were Medicare and Medicaid "related." In 2007, HCA reported revenues of $26.9 billion, approximately $16 billion of which was paid for by American taxpayers.

What most people may not know is that HCA plead guilty to 14 felonies and was hit with a $1.7 billion fine – far and away the largest such fine in history - for Medicare fraud. These fines, it seems, were a minor bump in the road for HCA, on their way to grabbing hundreds of billions of American taxpayer dollars in the years to come. Doctors and hospitals reap the financial benefit of surgeries, whether they are warranted or not. American taxpayers, both in terms of Medicare/Medicaid payouts and higher insurance premiums, pay the real price.

American Dream

Producer Patrick Murphy puts flip cameras in the hands of students from Louis University to discover their ideas about American Dream. The students watched a film about the American Dream and then were were given flip cameras in which they filmed what they thought embodied the American dream.

Minuteman says Mexico did the 911 attack

See for yourself how minuteman are rant by ignorance and Anti Immigrant sentiment against Mexico and Mexicans.
They sure that 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by Mexico and Mexicans.. That's so pathetic that people claimed to be educated making those assessments..

A God's Love Letter.

A heartwarming love letter from God for all of us. Do you have days where you feel lonely, un-loved, and not wanted? We all experience days like that, don't we? When I'm feeling down and lonely, I always turn to God in prayer. Here's a Love Letter from God to all of us. I want to encourage to all to open your heart and listen to god words. This is my expression of love to you all.

Detained!

film about our friend Olof who was detained by the INS after a holiday in Sweden. He was put in a federal detention center in Louisiana for two years--a prison he had no reason to be in. Through his experience, learn about these disfunctional immigration laws which are a danger to every legal resident in this country! A film by Michele Barber and Laura deNey.

Due Process Violations in Detention and Deportation

This video illustrates how United States detention and deportation policies fail to meet international standards for due process established, among other places, in the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man. Created by a nationwide coalition of documentarians and legal practitioners, it was edited by University of Pennsylvania law students for a general thematic hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights presented October 28, 2008

Facts: Immigration Detention in 2008

In 2008, we are torturing immigrants who apply for asylum. We segregate them until they develop Stockholm syndrome, we deny them showers more than 3 times a week, we deny them fresh fruits and vegetables, we deny them medical care, but we house them in prisons across America without any convictions. We house them for years on end this way -- breaking all the human rights laws of the Geneva Convention; we keep their children in prison too; and we even deport U.S. citizens. These people are denied access to counsel, due process, and all the rights outlined in our Constitution which covers ANYONE inside our borders. Then we worry about Homeland Security? And many of the people we torture who wait for these people are U.S. citizens. I am one...and this is what I've learned about the for-profit prison system of CCA, that exploits immigrants for corporate profits. Today we build more prisons with taxpayer's money, and we have half the immigrants than last year.

Chinese provinces battle worsening drought - 12 Feb 09

I am hoping that this can take as an example that the worst droughts is not only here because Nativist, Anti Immigrants blaming undocumented Immigrants.
Parts of northern and central China have been hit by one of the worst droughts in 50 years, and the government has moved quickly to irrigate fields and revive crops.

US citizens scramble for food aid - 11 Feb 09

The number of unemployed Americans continues to rise and some are now struggling to put food on the table, becoming increasingly dependent on food stamps to help them get by.

Food stamps are a state-subsidised programme that helps people with a low income buy food at lower prices. But for many US citizens it may not be enough to help them weather the economic crisis, as Lucy Keating discovers in the US town of Knoxville in Tennessee.

The new Weapon of Resistance. Music

The nomadic Touareg tribes have endured years of drought and civil war. The one constant through this hardship has been the music of Tinariwen.

Once a group of rebel soldiers, training alongside Colonel Gadaffi in Libya, after years of struggle and violence Tinariwen decided to lay down their guns and fight with a different weapon - music

Empowering Youth hispanics to join drugs, gangs, crime and they are the least educated. According to Lloyd Carter

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Apology...No way..look at the tone of voice and his face remarks. I am wonder where Mr. Carter buying his foods?. Look at video and judge for yourself.

So I am proud to say that both my parents were hard working farmworkers. So, if we apply your theories about farmworkers and their children to me, I am not educated, I am a criminal, I am on welfare and I must be dealing in drugs with my gang.

This may be news to you, but I am educated (I have a BA in International Laws). I am also proud to say that I have never been arrested, been on welfare, never using drugs and I have never had a desire to belong to a gang. And by the way, when it was time for my mother she never use any Goverment benefits at all..imagine that!!!

Also, please stop referring to human beings as illegal aliens...i would recommend that you refer to them as undocumented workers. God give you a lighted guidance for your soul. God Bless you...

When you write 'KKK' and let's shoot the n-word in the head' and use confederate flags, you can't hide behind a free expression law.

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The NAACP told a UNC commission why a hate speech policy is needed throughout the UNC Systems' 16 schools.

This comes in light of racist graffiti that was painted on North Carolina State University's Free Expression Tunnel after Barack Obama was elected President.

The NAACP started its presentation to the commission by displaying a picture of one of those racist statements painted on the Tunnel that reads, "let's shoot the N****r in the head.'"

"When you write 'KKK' and let's shoot the n-word in the head' and use confederate flags, you can't hide behind a free expression law," said The Rev. William Barber, NAACP President.

The commission is tasked with deciding if the UNC System needs a policy on hate speech. On Monday, Dr. Barber made his case why he believes it's necessary. He said the incident at NC State is not justifiable as free speech.

"That speech is not merely offensive, it's threatening and it's not protected (under the First Amendment)," said Dr. Barber.

Barber said the UNC System needs to define how it will investigate hate crimes and what the penalities are. Also, he said, "we need a clear curriculum that teaches us more about how we must interface and be one community."

But Barber said this issue extends beyond NC State. It's something he believes boils down to peoples' mindsets.

"We may not be able to change their mind, but we need laws and regulations that will prohibit actions," he said.

Barber was allowed to address the commission alone today because he was unable to attend the public hearing earlier this month.

The commission's next meeting is February 9th at 1 p.m. at the Spangler Center. Commissioners will have to decide by the end of March whether to implement a hate speech policy. They are also taking a look at whether students should be required to take diversity traning courses.

Illegals Immigrants draining social services? A lie or a Lie.!!

There is no such as Illegal Immigrant either someone as undocumented Immigrant caugh draining or commited any fraud against any social services. Why continue blaming them for God sake. This is the main problem in America. Some have eyes but cannot see," "Some have tongues but cannot speak the truth. They have ears but can't hear. That's where the problem is".

According to their 2008 SEC filings, the largest hospital chain in the U.S., the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) - founded by the family of former Senator and Majority Leader Bill Frist; After his Senate career, Frist became a partner with health-care investment firm, and chairman of a nonprofit (????) charitable (???) foundation focusing on Global health initiatives and Education issues- reports that in 2008 about 49% of their revenues and 59% of their hospital admissions were Medicare and Medicaid "related." In 2007, HCA reported revenues of $26.9 billion, approximately $16 billion of which was paid for by American taxpayers.

What most people may not know is that HCA plead guilty to 14 felonies and was hit with a $1.7 billion fine – far and away the largest such fine in history - for Medicare fraud. These fines, it seems, were a minor bump in the road for HCA, on their way to grabbing hundreds of billions of American taxpayer dollars in the years to come. Doctors and hospitals reap the financial benefit of surgeries, whether they are warranted or not. American taxpayers, both in terms of Medicare/Medicaid payouts and higher insurance premiums, pay the real price. Source



A former Oklahoma pharmacist faces up to five years in prison on a federal fraud charge for making a false claim to Medicaid.

Sentencing for Gary Wayne Nichols, 33, is expected in the next 60 days, said Bob Troester, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Oklahoma City.
Nichols was charged in September with one count of making a false claim, and pleaded guilty to the felony in November. As part of a plea deal, he’s agreed to pay $180,000 in restitution, said his attorney, Jean Paul Bradshaw.
Bradshaw said his client wants to take responsibility for his actions.
"He’s a very hard-working guy who got caught up in what he was doing and made some mistakes,” he said. "He’s sorry for what he did and is trying to make amends.”

Billed Medicaid $339,436 for prescriptions for nursing home patients that were not prescribed or filled.

Bought $100,000 in drugs for $25,000 in the parking lot of one of his pharmacies and tried to use the drugs to fraudulently get a refund from a drug company. They belonged to a tribal health clinic.

Man had six pharmaciesT

he case stems from a 2006 investigation by the state Board of Pharmacy and the state attorney general’s office that resulted in Nichols losing his pharmacist license.
He was licensed in 2001 and had been owner or part owner of six pharmacies in Moore, Oklahoma City, Altus, Guthrie, Allen and Lexington.
John Foust, executive director of the Board of Pharmacy, said Nichols’ case is one of the larger fraud cases investigated by his office.
Nichols lost his license and was fined $11,000 by the board.

UPS Worker victim of Hate Crime.!!!!!! STOP HATE.!!! Act know.

Hate crimes are criminal actions intended to harm or intimidate people because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or other minority group status. They are also referred to as bias crimes.

Since the 1980s, the problem of hate crimes has attracted increasing fear and tension within Minorities.

UPS DRIVER VICTIM OF HATE CRIME.

The Richmond chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was holding a vigil in Richmond Thursday afternoon in support of Brandon Manning, a black man who was beaten Jan. 24 in what police and prosecutors have alleged was a hate crime.

Seven people were initially arrested in connection with the beating but only four have been charged. The local NAACP chapter alleges that the three people who were released would have been charged if not for a delay by Richmond police in investigating the case.

In a phone interview Thursday, Manning, a 24-year-old Pinole resident who works for UPS, recalled the attack.

Manning said he had gotten off work early that day but didn't have a ride home, so he went to a nearby gas station to ask around for a lift.

"I got a ride from some ladies who drove me to the Valero station in Pinole," Manning said.

As he was trying to get a ride from the Valero station to his home, Manning saw a group of men. They started talking and Manning thought he recognized the driver of one of the cars, he said. The driver allegedly said he recognized Manning as well "and we agreed we knew each other from a past job," Manning said.

Manning said he asked the men if they would give him a ride home, since he didn't live far from the gas station.

They said they would, but instead of taking him home, they took him to La Moine Valley View Park in Richmond.

It was a large group and they were all drunk, Manning said, so he tried to "go with the flow."

"I didn't want to piss them off," he said.

While they were in the park, they saw a police car drive by and the group started walking away from the cars so the police wouldn't think they had been driving drunk.

They started walking toward some houses to make it look like they had walked to the park, Manning said.

"Then out of nowhere I get blindsided," Brandon said. "And the rest is history."

The group started kicking and punching Manning while shouting racial slurs at him, he said.

Manning said he lay there and waited for them to leave and then stumbled to a house to ask for help.

The residents of the first house he tried refused to help him, Manning said, so he knocked on the door of the next house and they called him an ambulance.

He said he was still in a lot of pain. The left side of his face is fractured in six places and he is scheduled to have reconstructive surgery next week.

Doctors are going to put metal plates in to support his cheekbone "so my face doesn't look like it's sinking anymore," Manning said.

The assault was reported at about 3 a.m. on Jan. 24, a Saturday, but wasn't investigated until the following Wednesday or Thursday because of an administrative error, Sgt. Bisa French said.

Seven suspects were initially arrested and four were charged earlier this week. The other three were released because there wasn't enough evidence to charge them, police said.

Steven Kinney, 18, Andrew Word, 19, Victor Faria, 18, and Richard Lange, 20, have each been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, felony battery and an enhancement for allegedly committing a hate crime, French said.

Lange also faces an additional charge for violating his probation.

Ken Nelson, president of the Richmond chapter of the NAACP, said that by holding the vigil he hopes to send a message to the community that hate crimes will not be tolerated in Richmond.

He also hopes to raise awareness of what he called the "incompetence of the police department" for not investigating the attack immediately.

Nelson said he believed a delay in the investigation led to the release of three of the suspects.

"It was not taken seriously," Nelson said. "It gives the appearance of a double standard."

"That had nothing to do with it," according to French.

She said detectives presented all the evidence to the deputy district attorney and that evidence wouldn't have been any different if the crime had been investigated immediately.

According to French, the delay happened because weekend shift detectives had put the initial report of the beating on their supervisor's desk at the end of their shifts, but their supervisor didn't get back to the station to assign the case to investigators until the following Wednesday or Thursday.

Police have since restructured how they process crime reports and all reports now go directly to the on-duty watch commander, French said.

"It is extremely difficult to look at this as an isolated event or just a mistake," Nelson said.

He said representatives from the NAACP spoke with the mayor and city manager about a month ago and told them they were concerned about racial discrimination in the Richmond Police Department.

"And now here we are a month later and we have this debacle," Nelson said.

Manning said that a lot of his friends were angry about what had happened to him. They were also angry that three of the suspects had been released without charges, but he said he was trying not to let his own anger take over and make him do something stupid.

"I have a little family I have to care for," Manning said.

He has two stepsons and a baby due in March.

Kinney, Word, Lange and Faria were arraigned Wednesday in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Richmond, but did not enter pleas. They are scheduled to return to court Feb. 11 to be assigned attorneys and enter pleas, according to the superior court clerk's office. Source:

Why are we remained Silent against Hate Crimes?.

Selma Goncalves, 20, was killed January 21, 2009 by an attacker in her Brockton apartment. Another woman was shot and is recovering and a third person, a 72 year old man Arlindo Goncvalves, no relation, was shot and killed by the attacker as he fled the woman's home. The attacker, Keith Luke age 22 of Brockton had set out on a mission of hate killings according to the police. He wanted to kill and many non-whites and jews as possible. According to Luke, his intended target after the murder of Goncalves was a synagogue in Brockton that was hosting a weekly Bingo game that draws hundreds. Luke was captured after a wild chase and shootout over three miles in the city of 90,000. Selma Gonsalves had come to Brockton a year ago from her native Cape Verde. Luke face multiple charges of murder and other charges.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.!!!!!!!!!!!

Why are we remained Silent against Hate crimes?.

Cape Verdean community mourns several People killed by Racial Hatred
Brutal Racial Murders in Brockton, Massachusetts

More than 50 mourners were at St. Edith Stein Church in Brockton this morning for the funeral Mass for Arlindo Goncalves, a 72-year-old city man who was shot to death last week during a killing spree that authorities said was motivated by racism,

Arlindo Goncalves, Cape Verdean Musician Killed, 72 years - Played Trumpet and Piano Keyboard on the Street.
Selma Goncalves, 20, was killed January 21, 2009 by an attacker in her Brockton apartment


Loving Father, Husband and Friend.

"Always a Happy Man, 72 years, Always a Lover of Music".
A Racial Murder Spree - Murderer also killed a Creole Woman.
Determined to kill as many non Whites as Possible.
I guess Cape Verdeans can be called Iberics or Hispanics because they speak Portuguese, so they speak a Latin derived language and can also be called Latinos.

Hispanic or Iberic Creole from Cape Verde ( Portuguese ) killed by Brutal Racist

More than 50 mourners were at St. Edith Stein Church in Brockton this morning for the funeral Mass for Arlindo Goncalves, a 72-year-old

Why we remained Silence against Hate crime against Latinos?

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As Brockton looks to heal from the racially and religious motivated killings of two and wounding of a third person by a gunman this week, Rabbi Joshua Cohen of Temple Beth Emunah talks about the need to do a better job educating young people about racial and religious tolerance. Temple Beth Emunah was identified by t he suspect as one of his intended targets in his killing spree. The Synagogue hosts a weekly Bingo game that draws hundreds of participants. The accused killer, Keith Luke also told authorities he spent free time visiting hate websites.

Used, Abused, and Know treated as the worst Criminals. Outrageous.

There was all the symbolism necessary for the glory he seeks: hundreds of men dressed in prison stripes with pink underwear protruding from their waists,
surrounded by even more heavily armed guards and at a given moment an old man gave a signal and they were marched through a public street into a tent jail that would house only other men of their color and status surrounded by a high electrified fence... and the old man pontificated about the law...Chihuahua hasta cuando esto va a parar, This a reminder to all Latinos, Hispanics and those looks kinda a Mexican.
We need to stop the continues violation of our civil rights, we have been diminished day by day, they are killing us by their hatred emotions day by day, They are demonizing everyone just because we look kinda a Mexican....I ask myself what's wrong with being or look like Mexican? or that Racism?. Do you believe you have been attained or acquired equally rights as Hispanic or Latino?. Nooooooo. do you ever heard this comment from Real State Agents: Do not buy a house on this neighborhood; you will better off on Latino or Hispanic community. How many times do you hear this comments at Dealerships, You are not qualified for this loan because your credit is bad?; But someone else with the same credit or even worst get better rate and loan performance. We always have been used and abused, stereotyping, discriminated, demonized and racially segregated. We need to stop and send a clear message. Enough is enough. We are entitled to a same and equal rights like everybody else.

While on Immigration there are valid arguments on both sides of the issue, the debate has also been framed, at times, by vitriolic anti-immigrant – and particularly anti-Hispanic – rhetoric and propaganda. Purveyors of this extremist rhetoric use stereotypes and outright bigotry to target immigrants kinda look like Mexican and hold them responsible for numerous societal ills. Why?. see some of the vitriols arguments from Anti Immigrants groups:

1.-Describing immigrants as "third world invaders," who come to America to destroy our heritage, "colonize" the country and attack our "way of life." This charge is used against Hispanics, Asians and other people of color.


2.-Using terminology that describes immigrants as part of "hordes" that "swarm" over the border. This dehumanizing language has become common.


3.-Portraying immigrants as carriers of diseases like leprosy, tuberculosis, Chagas disease (a potentially fatal parasitic disease), dengue fever, polio, malaria.


4.-Depicting immigrants as criminals, murderers, rapists, terrorists, and a danger to children and families.


5.-Propagating conspiracy theories about an alleged secret "reconquista" plot by Mexican immigrants to create a "greater Mexico" by seizing seven states in the American Southwest that once belonged to Mexico.

Why blaming undocumented immigrants for draining social services?.

TWO AREA PHYSICIANS AMONG FOUR DEFENDANTS CHARGED IN THREE SEPARATE FEDERAL HEALTH CARE FRAUD SCHEMES.


CHICAGO – Two Chicago area physicians are among four defendants who have been charged recently in three separate, unrelated federal healthcare fraud cases, federal law enforcement officials announced today. Each of the physicians, who were charged in separate cases, allegedly defrauded either Medicare and/or private health care insurers – in one case for more than $13 million – by either billing for services they never provided or inflating the services they did provide to patients. In the third case, the operator and manager of two former suburban Chicago durable medical equipment providers allegedly defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by providing power wheelchair or orthotic devices that were not prescribed or medically necessary and the recipients were not qualified to receive.

“Health care fraud remains an important priority of federal law enforcement. We will use all of our resources to ensure that dishonest physicians and other medical providers do not profit from cheating Medicare and private insurers,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Mr. Fitzgerald announced the cases, all three of which were charged or unsealed this week in U.S. District Court, with Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of Federal Bureau of Investigation; Lamont Pugh, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in Chicago; and James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in Chicago. The Office of Personnel Management Office of Inspector General also participated in the investigations.

The defendants in all three cases were charged with one or more counts each of health care fraud. If convicted, each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The Court, however, would determine the appropriate sentence to be imposed under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

In each case, the public is reminded that charges are not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The details of each case follow:

United States v. Sushil Sheth

Dr. Sushil Sheth, a cardiologist with privileges at three unnamed Chicago area hospitals, was charged with health care fraud in a criminal information filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

Between January 2002 and July 2007, he allegedly received approximately $13.4 million – $8.3 million from Medicare and $5.1 million from other health care insurers – in fraudulent reimbursement for the highest level of cardiac care when those services were not performed, and then used the proceeds for his own benefit.

Sheth, 47, of Burr Ridge and whose business office is in Flossmoor, will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court.

According to the charges, Sheth used his hospital privileges to access and obtain information about patients without their knowledge or consent. He then hired individuals to bill Medicare and other insurance providers for medical services that he purportedly rendered to patients whom he knew he never treated. Typically waiting almost a year after the treatment was purportedly provided, Sheth submitted false claims for reimbursement for providing the highest level of cardiac care – requiring hands-on treatment in an intensive care unit – on multiple days during patients’ hospital stays.

The charges seek forfeiture of approximately $13.4 million and two parcels of real estate in Scottsdale , Ariz. The Government has seized or restrained approximately $11.3 million in various bank and investment accounts held by Sheth and his wife.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven J. Dollear. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Inspector General’s offices of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Labor Department.

United States v. Otto Garcia Montenegro

Dr. Otto Garcia Montenegro, a general practice physician who owned and operated a private medical clinic, Montenegro Clinic, Inc., in Elmwood Park, where he treated dozens of patients each week, was charged with health care fraud in a criminal information filed yesterday in U.S. District Court. Between early 2003 and May 2007, he allegedly submitted false health insurance claims totaling approximately $500,000 to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and other private medical insurance providers. The insurers paid Montenegro approximately $373,000 based on the false claims, the charges allege.

Montenegro , 47, of Elmwood Park , will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court.

According to the charges, Montenegro did not collect deductibles and co-payments from patients and, instead, submitted hundreds of fraudulent insurance claims to insurers for services and treatments that he knew he did not actually provide in order to exhaust patients’ deductibles and copays and obtain money for himself. As part of the scheme, he allegedly created hundreds of bogus bills falsely identifying visits and treatments that never occurred.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Stern. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General.

United States v. Stephen Anthony Pam and Shavon Keyona Williams

Stephen Anthony Pam, who controlled and operated two former durable medical equipment companies in suburban Chicago that supplied motorized wheelchairs, scooters, reclining lift chairs and orthotic devices, and Shavon Keyona Williams, who at various times worked as office manager or salesperson for both business, were each indicted on 34 counts of health care fraud for allegedly fraudulently billing millions of dollars to Medicare and Medicaid and other health care benefit programs.

Pam, 47, of Sugarland , Tex. , was arrested on January 23 in Houston after returning from a foreign trip. He remains in federal custody while being transferred to Chicago to face prosecution.

Williams, 30, of Chicago , will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court. They were indicted by a federal grand jury on December 11 and the indictment was unsealed following Pam’s arrest.

Pam controlled and operated the former Alliance Healthcare Services & Medical Equipment, Inc., in Glen Ellyn , and the former Medlinc Concepts, Inc., in Oak Brook.

Between 2004 and 2008, the defendants allegedly falsely claimed to Medicare and Medicaid that power wheelchairs or orthotic devices were medically necessary for beneficiaries when they knew that physicians had not ordered or prescribed such equipment and that beneficiaries did not qualify to receive them under Medicare and Medicaid rules. As part of the fraud scheme, Pam and Williams allegedly submitted hundreds of claims for reimbursement to Medicare and Medicaid totaling more than $5 million, falsely stating that Alliance and Medlinc had delivered equipment to beneficiaries when they knew that either no equipment was actually delivered; beneficiaries received less expensive scooters or reclining lift chairs instead of more expensive power wheelchairs; or beneficiaries received orthotic devices that were less in quantity or Medicare-approved quality than what was billed.

In one aspect of the fraud scheme, the indictment alleges that between February 2005 and May 2006, approximately 99 percent of the Alliance claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid were for power wheelchairs and accessories that were never supplied. These claims totaled approximately $4.7 million. Pam, through Alliance , allegedly received reimbursements from these claims totaling more than $1.8 million, and the indictment seeks forfeiture of that amount.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Felicia Manno Alesia and Ryan Hedges. The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Inspector General and the FBI.

Why Anti Immigrants groups are in charge of any Immigration Reform?.

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Three Washington, D.C.-based immigration-restriction organizations stand at the nexus of the American nativist movement: the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA. Although on the surface they appear quite different — the first, the country's best-known anti-immigrant lobbying group; the second, an "independent" think tank; and the third, a powerful grassroots organizer — they are fruits of the same poisonous tree.

FAIR, CIS and NumbersUSA are all part of a network of restrictionist organizations conceived and created by John Tanton, the "puppeteer" of the nativist movement and a man with deep racist roots. As the first article in this report shows, Tanton has for decades been at the heart of the white nationalist scene. He has met with leading white supremacists, promoted anti-Semitic ideas, and associated closely with the leaders of a eugenicist foundation once described by a leading newspaper as a "neo-Nazi organization." He has made a series of racist statements about Latinos and worried that they were outbreeding whites. At one point, he wrote candidly that to maintain American culture, "a European-American majority" is required.

Key Quotes from the Report:

"CIS' creation was part of a carefully thought-out strategy aimed at creating a set of complementary institutions to cultivate the nativist cause – groups including the Federation for American immigration Reform (FAIR) and NumbersUSA."

"…these organizations are frequently treated as if they were legitimate, mainstream commentators on immigration. But the truth is that they were all conceived and birthed by a man who sees America under threat by non-white immigrants."

On FAIR: "The nativist lobby's action arm has an ugly record of promoting racist ideas, conspiracy theories and anti-immigrant hatred."

On CIS: "The nativist lobby's supposedly ‘independent' think tank has never found any aspect of immigration it likes."

Strip-Search of 13 Year-Old Student, a Violation of Constitutional Rights?.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday it will decide if the 2003 strip-search of a 13-year-old Arizona female student was reasonable or if it violated her Constitutional rights. The Court will also determine whether the girl is entitled to a financial settlement from the school district or the school official who ordered the search.

The decision could have a lasting affect on a school's drug enforcement policies.

The case, Redding v. Safford Unified School District, was appealed from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which found the strip search to be unconstitutional. A six-judge majority of the appeals court further held that the school official who ordered the search is not entitled to immunity as a result of his actions.

"Overzealous school officials stripped our client of her clothes and her constitutional rights," said Steven R. Shapiro, Legal Director of the ACLU, a plaintiff in the case. "We are confident that the Supreme Court will recognize that such conduct has no place in America’s schools and will protect the privacy rights of America’s students."

Savana Redding, an eighth grade honor roll student at Safford Middle School in Safford, Arizona, was pulled from class on October 8, 2003 by the school’s vice principal, Kerry Wilson. Earlier that day, Wilson had discovered prescription-strength ibuprofen - 400 milligram pills equivalent to two over-the-counter ibuprofen pills, such as Advil - in the possession of Redding’s classmate. Under questioning and faced with punishment, the classmate claimed that Redding, who had no history of disciplinary problems or substance abuse, had given her the pills. Safford maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward all prescription medicines, including prescription-strength ibuprofen.

After escorting Redding to his office, Wilson presented Redding with the ibuprofen pills and informed her of her classmate’s accusations. Redding said she had never seen the pills before and agreed to a search of her possessions, wanting to prove she had nothing to hide. Joined by a female school administrative assistant, Wilson searched Redding’s backpack and found nothing. Instructed by Wilson, the administrative assistant then took Redding to the school nurse’s office in order to perform a strip search.

In the school nurse’s office, Redding was ordered to strip to her underwear. She was then commanded to pull her bra out and to the side, exposing her breasts, and to pull her underwear out at the crotch, exposing her pelvic area.

The strip search failed to uncover any ibuprofen pills.

"The strip search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had," said Redding in a sworn affidavit following the incident. "I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry."

The ACLU says the strip search was undertaken based solely on the uncorroborated claims of the classmate facing punishment. The groups says no attempt was made to corroborate the classmate’s accusations among other students or teachers, no physical evidence suggested that Redding might be in possession of ibuprofen pills or that she was concealing them in her undergarments. Furthermore, the classmate had not claimed that Redding currently possessed any pills, nor had the classmate given any indication as to where they might be concealed. No attempt was made to contact Redding’s parents prior to conducting the strip search.

"It offends both common sense and the Constitution to undertake such an excessive, traumatizing search based on nothing more than an uncorroborated accusation of ibuprofen possession," said Adam Wolf, an attorney with the ACLU and counsel of record in the case. "Our fundamental right to privacy must not be cast aside when faced with groundless allegations rooted in unfounded fears of adolescent Advil abuse.

Mexican Americans are entitled to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment?

Facts of the Case

Pete Hernandez, an agricultural worker, was indicted for the murder of Joe Espinoza by an all-Anglo (white) grand jury in Jackson County, Texas. Claiming that Mexican-Americans were barred from the jury commission that selected juries, and from petit juries, Hernandez' attorneys tried to quash the indictment. Moreover, Hernandez tried to quash the petit jury panel called for service, because persons of Mexican descent were excluded from jury service in this case. A Mexican-American had not served on a jury in Jackson County in over 25 years and thus, Hernandez claimed that Mexican ancestry citizens were discriminated against as a special class in Jackson County. The trial court denied the motions. Hernandez was found guilty of murder and sentenced by the all-Anglo jury to life in prison. In affirming, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found that "Mexicans are...members of and within the classification of the white race as distinguished from members of the Black Race" and rejected the petitioners' argument that they were a "special class" under the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. Further, the court pointed out that "so far as we are advised, no member of the Mexican nationality" challenged this classification as white or Caucasian.

Question

Is it a denial of the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause to try a defendant of a particular race or ethnicity before a jury where all persons of his race or ancestry have, because of that race or ethnicity, been excluded by the state?

Conclusion

Yes. In a unanimous opinion delivered by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment protects those beyond the two classes of white or Black, and extends to other racial groups in communities depending upon whether it can be factually established that such a group exists within a community. In reversing, the Court concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment "is not directed solely against discrimination due to a 'two-class theory'" but in this case covers those of Mexican ancestry. This was established by the fact that the distinction between whites and Mexican ancestry individuals was made clear at the Jackson County Courthouse itself where "there were two men's toilets, one unmarked, and the other marked 'Colored Men and 'Hombres Aqui' ('Men Here')," and by the fact that no Mexican ancestry person had served on a jury in 25 years. Mexican Americans were a "special class" entitled to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment

In 1951 in the town of Edna, Texas, a field hand named Pedro Hernández murdered his employer after exchanging words at a gritty cantina. From this seemingly unremarkable small-town murder emerged a landmark civil rights case that would forever change the lives and legal standing of tens of millions of Americans. A team of unknown Mexican American lawyers took the case, Hernandez v. Texas, all the way to the Supreme Court, where they successfully challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination against Mexican Americans.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE presents A Class Apart from the award-winning producers Carlos Sandoval (_Farmingville_), and Peter Miller (_Sacco and Vanzetti_, The Internationale). The one-hour film dramatically interweaves the story of its central characters— activists and lawyers, returning veterans and ordinary citizens, murderer, and victim — within the broader story of a civil rights movement that is still very much alive today.

The film begins with the little known history of Mexican Americans in the United States. In 1848, the Mexican-American War came to an end. For the United States, the victory meant ownership of large swaths of Mexican territory. The tens of thousands of residents living on the newly annexed land were offered American citizenship as part of the treaty to end the war. But as time evolved it soon became apparent that legal citizenship for Mexican Americans was one thing, equal treatment would be quite another.

“Life in the 1950s was very difficult for Hispanics,” Wanda García, a native of Corpus Christi, explains in the film. “We were considered second-rate, we were not considered intelligent. We were considered invisible.”

In the first 100 years after gaining U.S. citizenship, many Mexican Americans in Texas lost their land to unfamiliar American laws, or to swindlers. With the loss of their land came a loss of status, and within just two generations, many wealthy ranch owners had become farm workers. After the Civil War, increasing numbers of Southern whites moved to south Texas, bringing with them the rigid, racial social code of the Deep South, which they began to apply not just to blacks, but to Mexican Americans as well.

Widespread discrimination followed Latinos from schoolhouses and restaurants to courthouses and even to funeral parlors, many of which refused to prepare Mexican American bodies for burial. During World War II, more than 300,000 Mexican Americans served their country expecting to return home with the full citizenship rights they deserved. Instead, the returning veterans, many of them decorated war heroes, came back to face the same injustices they had experienced all their lives.

Latino lawyers and activists were making progress at state levels, but they knew that real change could only be achieved if Mexican Americans were recognized by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — something that could only be accomplished by bringing a case to the Supreme Court.

In his law office in San Antonio, a well-known attorney named Gus García listened to the desperate pleas of Pedro Hernández’s mother, who traveled more than one hundred and fifty miles to ask him to defend her son. García quickly realized that there was more to this case than murder. The real concern was not Hernández’s guilt, but whether he could receive a fair trial with an all-Anglo jury deciding his fate.

García assembled a team of courageous attorneys who argued on behalf of Hernández from his first trial at the Jackson County Courthouse in Texas all the way to Washington, DC. It would be the first time a Mexican American appeared before the Supreme Court.

The Hernandez lawyers decided on a daring but risky legal strategy, arguing that Mexican Americans were “a class apart” and did not neatly fit into a legal structure that recognized only black and white Americans. As legal skirmishes unfolded, the lawyers emerged as brilliant, dedicated, humorous, and at times, terribly flawed men.

“They took a gamble,” says University of California-Berkeley professor of law Ian Haney-López in the film. “They knew, on the up side, that they could win national recognition for the equality of Mexican Americans, but they knew, on the down side, that if they lost, they would establish at a national level the proposition that Mexican Americans could be treated as second class citizens.”

The Hernandez case struck a chord with Latinos across the country. When funds to try the case ran out, the Mexican American community donated to the cause in any way they could, despite limited resources.

“They would come up to me and they would give you crumpled-up dollar bills and they’d give you coins. These were people who couldn’t afford it, but couldn’t afford not to,” recalled attorney Carlos Cadena, Gus García’s partner in the case.

On January 11, 1954, García and Cadena faced the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Cadena opened the argument. “Can Mexican Americans speak English?” one justice asked. “Are they citizens?” asked another. The lack of knowledge stunned Gus García, who stood up and delivered the argument of his life. Chief Justice Earl Warren allowed him to continue a full sixteen minutes past the allotted time, a concession a witness noted had not been afforded to any other civil rights lawyer before García, including the renowned NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall.

On May 3, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its ruling in the case of Hernandez v. Texas. Pedro Hernández would receive a new trial — and would be judged by a true jury of his peers. The court’s legal reasoning: Mexican Americans, as a group, were protected under the 14th Amendment, in keeping with the theory that they were indeed “a class apart.”

“The Hernandez v. Texas story is a powerful reminder of one of many unknown yet hard-fought moments in the civil rights movement,” says AMERICAN EXPERIENCE executive producer Mark Samels. “It’s easy to forget how far the country has come in just fifty years, reshaping our democracy to include all Americans.”

The way we view and called Liberty in America.

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Opinions on what constitute liberty can vary widely, but can be generally classified as positive liberty and negative liberty. Positive liberty asserts that freedom is the ability of society to achieve an end. However, in modern time, liberty is generally considered to be the concept of negative liberty. This refers to an individual's liberty from being subjected to the authority of others. In this negative sense, one is considered free to the extent to which no person interferes with his or her activity. The social contract theory, invented by Hobbes, John Locke and Rousseau, were among the first to provide a political classification of rights, in particular through the notion of sovereignty and of natural rights. The thinkers of the Enlightenment reasoned the assertion that law governed both heavenly and human affairs, and that law gave the king his power, rather than the king's power giving force to law.
In the United States, more than 200 towns and counties are called Liberty. In this past historic election year, a new documentary explores the messy business of America's most celebrated value in a number of ways and places.

You are on Indian Land.By Mort Ransen 1969.

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The film shows the confrontation between police and a 1969 demonstration by Mohawks of the St. Regis Reserve on the bridge between Canada and the United States near Cornwall, Ontario. By blocking traffic on the bridge, which is on the Reserve, the Indians drew public attention to their grievance that they were prohibited by Canadian authorities from duty-free passage of personal purchases across the border, a right they claim was established by the Jay Treaty of 1794.

Stimulus bill for Liars like Lou Dobbs and Bill O’Reilly.

From what I've been able to find on reputable sites, (New York Times, Factcheck.org) and from my own knowledge Undocumented Immigrants pay more than 7 billion dollars into the system each year in Social Security payroll deductions and 1.5 billion dollars in Medicare taxes.

Most of the people use fake social Security cards or ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) to get jobs and most don't collect. Both Social Security and medicare would be in even worse shape if the undocumented workers were able to collect benefits but they are not entitled to any benefits.

Even if some are getting benefits, the overwhelming majority pay into the systems but never get anything from the system.

I'm not making excuses; I am just trying not to be blinded by the message of hatred from those who really are reacting without thinking their positions through.

Pushing false information has lasting consequences on the image of immigrants, and those perceived to be foreign.

On January 29, 2009, Associated Press staff writer Julie Hirschfeld Davis, released the article “Hill Republican: Stimulus aids illegal immigrants” where the false assertion was made that the Stimulus package would provide money for undocumented immigrants:

The $800 billion-plus economic stimulus measure making its way through Congress could steer government checks to illegal immigrants, a top Republican congressional official asserted Thursday.

Shortly after its publication, the story gained a lot of public attention by the conservative news site The Drudge Report, CNN’s Lou Dobbs, and FOX News. Hours after the false claim was retracted by the AP (3:02 p.m. ET), these “news organizations” repeated it nonetheless. The Drudge Report kept the link to the uncorrected AP story up for 4 hours. Dobbs made the claim at 5:27 pm ET. FOX News repeated the claim at 6:09 pm ET, and then again at 8:16 pm ET on Bill O’Reilly’s.

As it turned out, the one single anonymous source was later withdrawn and the article was rewritten to show the information provided by that source had been false.

A senior GOP congressional official expressed concern Thursday that the bill could steer government checks to undocumented workers, but in fact the measure prevents anyone without a Social Security number from claiming tax credits of $500 per worker and $1,000 per couple.

Stories like these tend to instigate anti-immigration sentiments given the controversial topic, and Fox News, Lou Dobbs, and the Drudge Report only add fuel to the fire. The point is simple: pushing false information has the lasting consequences on the image of immigrants, and those perceived to be foreign. Ineffectively informing the public about two important issues, immigration and the economy, will only strengthen the tensions amongst the various ideologies debating these topics.